Trump’s escalation against Venezuela is about more than oil, it is about regaining control over the ‘natural’ zone of influence of the United States at a moment where its hegemony is slipping, argues VIJAY PRASHAD
Lives are being put at risk through the downskilling of the NHS
The government’s latest cost-cutting NHS manoeuvres are a risk to patient safety – they must be vigorously opposed, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
General view of staff on a NHS hospital ward, January, 2023
Evidence suggests Lammy’s proposals would come at a high cost: reduced fairness, diminished trust and greater racial inequality in the criminal justice system, argue TARA LAI QUINLAN and KATHARINA KARCHER
From the workhouses of the 1840s to today’s market capitalism, A Christmas Carol remains a sharp critique of charity rationed by class, says KEITH FLETT
The argument for a “significant expansion” of nuclear power will deliver soaring electricity prices that condemn underserved communities to unending hardship and poverty, argues LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The new plan sets out an uncompromising bid for global dominance, casting even allies as obstacles to be subdued, writes DIANE ABBOTT
As we approach the half-anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, the community gathers to remember loved ones while grappling with mixed emotions surrounding the ongoing deconstruction of the tower and the hopeful plans for a memorial, writes EMMA DENT COAD
THE British government is preparing to legislate for new “regulated” medical roles in the NHS that it claims will “improve patient safety”: “medical associates.” However, the government and the NHS admit that these roles are not qualified doctors and that they form a key part of the government’s “long-term plan” to increase the NHS workforce.
The new plan for these semi-qualified roles to be regulated by the General Medical Council will drive the supposedly “safe” “expansion of medical associate roles to support doctors and GPs,” amounting to a padding out of NHS numbers to allow costs to be driven down through a “downskilling” of the NHS workforce.
The absence of proper workforce planning since the Conservatives entered government in 2010 was highlighted by the King’s Fund earlier this year as a major cause of the struggles of the NHS, yet the Tories’ response to that now is to fill positions with people who are not as qualified as those the NHS has lost.
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When privatisation is already so deeply embedded in the NHS, we can’t just blindly argue for ‘more funding’ to solve its problems, explain ESTHER GILES, NICO CSERGO, BRIAN GIBBONS and RATHI GUHADASAN
Labour is deliberately continuing Tory policies that cost us £38 billion more than they save while driving illness rates higher — despite the evidence that previous sanctions doubled suicide attempts, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
The Labour Party, once the proud architect of our health service, has become its undertaker, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE